While there are many ways to feel good and to experience pleasure, perhaps is none more important to live a happy life than to having a well-defined direction and purpose. Without one, it’s almost impossible to rise and rally when we are in the bottom of a bounce. With one, nothing can stop us from getting up after falling down.
We can repeat magical phrases and watch inspirational speakers in order to help us to maintain a good attitude toward life, but without a specific direction worthy of our effort, any positive effect is likely to be fleeting. When our life has purpose and we know where we are going, it is unlikely for anything to permanently impede its achievement.
Most important isn’t only having a goal, but knowing why it is we want to get there. If our objectives are imposed by someone else, a company, or even society, when the going gets tough we will probably fold before challenge, immobilized, asking ourselves what happened and why we don’t advance.
When this happens we can make sure our purpose isn’t being determined by some external force. It’s not made up only of what our parents want, or what our teachers teach, but rather something that comes from inside, like a “calling” which at times isn’t easy to explain, but which we are ready and willing to do.
“Changing the world” or “being a better person” are overused maxims, which tend to be vague and lacking in substance. To these, and other missions like them, we can give specificity to convert them into powerful concepts allowing us to focus on what we have to do in order to develop our purpose.
We could say, “I am going to change the world with the product or service I offer because it gives great value, allowing my clients to better their lives,” or, “I will be a better person not only with what I say, but with what I do daily.” Our purpose doesn’t have to be anything extraordinary, but it should be something we can understand and define.
Some go their whole lives without ever thinking about their purpose, resulting in a dull, dreary existence which seems like it will never end. Others find their purpose in life when they are young and invest their time to make it happen. For the great many, it comes somewhere in the middle. Perhaps as the result of a hard knock on the head, or as a revelation one day when while taking a shower, or walking in the park.
Each of us can have different purpose in life; since each of us has within, a universe of possibility. Knowing we have a purpose can direct us so we are more aware of finding and implementing, instead of having to settle living without it.
∞ Rob McBride ∞
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